[Frank I]

The V281 is very interesting balanced. Certainly enough power. The musicality is worthy of flagship status. I am really enjoying this amplifier. It still has that famous black background and is a special piece. Freid really did well with this. The V200 soundstage I always felt was a little congested and restrained. The V281 solved that problem. The recordings  soundstage is veyr good with the V281. The V281 is not embarrassing itself  against my reference Viva Egoista and that is saying much since the Egoista is 10K. The difference I will talk about in my impressions when I finish writing the review. 

 

[daveyston23]

Somebody please help me with a noob question: if I'm setting up a balanced setup with the V281, a standalone DAC, and a separate source, do all the connections in the chain have to be be balanced in order to get the most out of a balanced setup? 
 
At the moment, I have either AK240 or a CD transport going into my DAC via optical, whereas the rest of the connections from DAC>V281>Headphones are all balanced. Am I losing anything here by not having a balanced source? 
 
Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[Frank I]

I find the differences in balanced well worth it. I using the V281 balanced with Nordost  Blue Heaven Interconnect going into the Oppo BDP 105. It sound better if all are balanced especially headphones.  If you capable of doing it fully balanced you may want to explore it but it works well for me.

 

[PleasantSounds]

  Somebody please help me with a noob question: if I'm setting up a balanced setup with the V281, a standalone DAC, and a separate source, do all the connections in the chain have to be be balanced in order to get the most out of a balanced setup? 
 
At the moment, I have either AK240 or a CD transport going into my DAC via optical, whereas the rest of the connections from DAC>V281>Headphones are all balanced. Am I losing anything here by not having a balanced source? 
 
Any advice is much appreciated!

 
The balanced signal is not needed in the digital domain, and all the common standards are single ended. 
You're not losing anything.

 

[Tony1110]

As far as I can tell, the only benefit to having a balanced DAC is the stronger signal it passes to the amp. I say 'as far as I can tell' because it's always been an aspect that confuses me. I don't know what kind of impact a stronger signal makes when it all comes out the other end.

 

[roskodan]

in fact when comparing balanced and se inputs on the amp one should match the input level by mean of the pre-gain, to avoid the louder to sound different, you can calculate the Vrms to dBu HERE
 
also electronically balanced interconnections will benefit from common noise rejection between the hot and cold phase, some dacs have variable output too, and there is no contamination from the ground, also higher levels can be achieved with less distortion/noise at the source

 

[Tony1110]

in fact when comparing balanced and se inputs on the amp one should match the input level by mean of the pre-gain, to avoid the louder to sound different, you can calculate the Vrms to dBu HERE

also electronically balanced interconnections will benefit from common noise rejection between the hot and cold phase, some dacs have variable output too, and there is no contamination from the ground, also higher levels can be achieved with less distortion/noise at the source

Yeah, I forgot to mention all that Am I correct in saying that your typical SE DAC will have an output level of about 2.4Vrms as opposed to about 4Vrms in a balanced DAC? Other than the hot and cold gain stuff, doesn't pre-gain pretty much eliminate the need for a balanced DAC? Seems to me that the only difference, in most cases, is the point at which the volume dial will be set.

 

[xaval]

  The V281 is very interesting balanced. Certainly enough power. The musicality is worthy of flagship status. I am really enjoying this amplifier. It still has that famous black background and is a special piece. Freid really did well with this. The V200 soundstage I always felt was a little congested and restrained. The V281 solved that problem. The recordings  soundstage is veyr good with the V281. The V281 is not embarrassing itself  against my reference Viva Egoista and that is saying much since the Egoista is 10K. The difference I will talk about in my impressions when I finish writing the review. 

How about treble airness and extension as well as micro detail. Some of the weakness that has been pointed out regarding the V200 is the slight treble rolloff and the relative lack of detail, maybe because of the warmness of the amp...

 

[Frank I]

  How about treble airness and extension as well as micro detail. Some of the weakness that has been pointed out regarding the V200 is the slight treble rolloff and the relative lack of detail, maybe because of the warmness of the amp...

Te V281 is actually two V200 in once chassis with a bigger power supply. The difference from when I havd the V200 s it is another amplifier entirely The biggest difference with  the V281 is a wide and detailed soundstage. There Is more separation between instruments with better focus and transparency. the soundstage has evolved.
 
The amplifier is not embarrassing itself when I switch to to 10K reference Egoista I have.  The V281 had good extension in the upper treble as well as bass. The micro detail is evident when listening to recording. You will Hear What is on the recording with a good source. The better the source the more detail you will hear. The tone of the amplifier is not bright. The sound to me is very similar to what I hear live.  There is no analytical sound to the v281, it is an instrument  and not like an amplifier that is cold and had microscopic detail-live music never sound slike that. the goal here was to get closer to the music and the V281 delivers for me.

 

[roskodan]

 

in fact when comparing balanced and se inputs on the amp one should match the input level by mean of the pre-gain, to avoid the louder to sound different, you can calculate the Vrms to dBu HERE

also electronically balanced interconnections will benefit from common noise rejection between the hot and cold phase, some dacs have variable output too, and there is no contamination from the ground, also higher levels can be achieved with less distortion/noise at the source

Yeah, I forgot to mention all that Am I correct in saying that your typical SE DAC will have an output level of about 2.4Vrms as opposed to about 4Vrms in a balanced DAC? Other than the hot and cold gain stuff, doesn't pre-gain pretty much eliminate the need for a balanced DAC? Seems to me that the only difference, in most cases, is the point at which the volume dial will be set.

no, balanced operation is about common noise rejection and isolation from ground, therefore less crosstalk between left and right channels, the fact that the level is higher is a byproduct of the single ended implementation inside the dac being 'doubled' to achieve balanced effect (basically having two inverted single ended sources/output to achieve one balanced, minus ground wire in the signal path), so out of practicality and common sense not to mess with the signal level more than it's necessary it's left to be twice that of the single ended output, also it's an industry standard for pro gear
 
pre-gain is used for overall level matching before gain because of the huge difference in sensitivity and impedance between various headphones/iems, basically a fixed resistor (stepped attenuator is you wish) pot before gain stage so to have more (or less, in that case it increases gain by looping) headroom with the main knob pot
 
but one must be aware that pre-gain value will sum up to the source level, so if like with the v200 the max input level is 21dBu for balanced input and your dac (source) output level is 15dBu (v800 default level for balanced output), than the max pre-gain usable before clipping will be +6dbu (15+6=21), so in that sense, yes, pre-gain is also used to eventually match the levels between source and amp (preamp), but it's hard to find such sources with so high default output levels

 

[Tony1110]

no, balanced operation is about common noise rejection and isolation from ground, therefore less crosstalk between left and right channels, the fact that the level is higher is a byproduct of the single ended implementation inside the dac being 'doubled' to achieve balanced effect (basically having two inverted single ended sources/output to achieve one balanced, minus ground wire in the signal path), so out of practicality and common sense not to mess with the signal level more than it's necessary it's left to be twice that of the single ended output, also it's an industry standard for pro gear

pre-gain is used for overall level matching before gain because of the huge difference in sensitivity and impedance between various headphones/iems, basically a fixed resistor (stepped attenuator is you wish) pot before gain stage so to have more (or less, in that case it increases gain by looping) headroom with the main knob pot

but one must be aware that pre-gain value will sum up to the source level, so if like with the v200 the max input level is 21dBu for balanced input and your dac (source) output level is 15dBu (v800 default level for balanced output), than the max pre-gain usable before clipping will be +6dbu (15+6=21), so in that sense, yes, pre-gain is also used to eventually match the levels between source and amp (preamp), but it's hard to find such sources with so high default output levels

Brace yourself for lots of PMs and lots of tedious questions from me when I get round to buying a proper DAC

 

[shultzee]

  Te V281 is actually two V200 in once chassis with a bigger power supply. The difference from when I havd the V200 s it is another amplifier entirely The biggest difference with  the V281 is a wide and detailed soundstage. There Is more separation between instruments with better focus and transparency. the soundstage has evolved.
 
The amplifier is not embarrassing itself when I switch to to 10K reference Egoista I have.  The V281 had good extension in the upper treble as well as bass. The micro detail is evident when listening to recording. You will Hear What is on the recording with a good source. The better the source the more detail you will hear. The tone of the amplifier is not bright. The sound to me is very similar to what I hear live.  There is no analytical sound to the v281, it is an instrument  and not like an amplifier that is cold and had microscopic detail-live music never sound slike that. the goal here was to get closer to the music and the V281 delivers for me.

I agree totally on the soundstage.  That was the shocker for me.   The separation and detail of the soundstage was a eye opener.  I came from three straight tube amps so I attributed some of it to moving to SS.   Also on my rig there is more punch to the bass and power to spare (in a huge way) . 

 

[Frank I]

The amp  has matured after burn In. Freid did a wonderful job with this unit. I will be using the Dac all week next week and see how it responds to USB and lossless files. I also have some high resolution files as well.

 

[Byrnie]

  The amp  has arrived. Freid did a wonderful job with this unit. I will be using the Dac all week next week and see how it responds to USB and lossless files. I also have some high resolution files as well.

Wait I thought you said you already had the amp?  Is this a different one?  Just trying to figure out which amp you're referring to .

 

[madbull]

Did you ever get that USB driver sorted?

Yes, I managed that. Violectric.de didn't have any drivers, but the American site had. Go figure.